1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communications, and more particularly, to billing mediation systems and methods that correlate session records.
2. Background of Invention
Billing for wireless data communications services presents a significant challenge as operators implement next generation wireless networks. Traditional billing models based on call duration and/or distance are difficult to apply to data services and do not enable measurement of the real value of the data services. Rather new billing paradigms have evolved in which network operators capture session records associated with data services and bill end users based on the data service usage activities captured in those session records.
Billing mediation systems are critical to realizing this new billing paradigm. Specifically, billing mediation systems interface a wireless data network using Internet Protocol (“IP”), such as CDMA2000, to a billing system to enable network operators to appropriately bill end users for the value of data services. A billing mediation system correlates and aggregates all usage relating to a particular session. A billing mediation system must be able to collect network usage data, produce the proper information for billing systems, and integrate with the operator's customer care systems.
The need for billing mediation is driven by the inherently nomadic nature of wireless data services and is complicated by the differing network capabilities of operators. For example, as part of a single session a user may watch live coverage of the Super Bowl on his next generation wireless phone. The user may receive twenty minutes of coverage, then travel to a different location. In route to the new location, coverage becomes spotty and the user only receives still photographs and an audio feed of the game from a radio station. Furthermore, along the way, coverage degrades further to the point where only text message updates are provided. Finally, upon reaching the new location, service improves and full video coverage is available again. Billing mediation systems must correlate session records for data service activity handled by different network elements, as given in the above example. After processing the session records, the billing mediation system presents the correlated session records to a billing system in a required format.
Many challenges exist with billing mediation systems. A challenge with billing mediation is that there are many points within a network from which to collect basic network transaction data. The data exists in many network devices and application servers such as routers, IP switches and gateways. Information can be incomplete and must be augmented from other sources to be correlated in real-time, due to the dynamic nature of data. Moreover, transaction data may arrive at the mediation system out of order.
Given the vast number of transactions and complexity of the potential service scenarios, billing mediation system efficiency is paramount. The efficiency of the correlation is impacted by record ordering issues (due to failure paths through the distributed collection system) and the lack of a sequence identifier in the records to allow the order to be corrected prior to correlation. Current billing mediation solutions rely on database intensive operations and fragile delay algorithms in order to correlate records that arrive out-of-order at the billing mediation system.
What are needed are billing mediation methods and systems that efficiently correlate session records.